Margarita Cupcakes

A few weeks ago I hosted a couple's shower for my sister and her fiance.  Adam's sister and Lindsey's best friend also helped to host, and although I took photos of only the cupcakes, it turned out to be very nice.  The weather was pretty good, just a little hot, but it stayed cloudy and we were able to sit outside and visit.  I spent some time before the shower making a lot of pulled pork for sandwiches.  We also served potato salad and Chuy's dip.  As it was bound to happen, sometime in the middle of cooking pulled pork my crockpot decided to stop working.  I managed to cook the pork in the oven and we Amazoned another crockpot over.

Last spring, when I was out on maternity leave I happened upon the cutest invitations at Target.  They were in colors of pale pink, orange & green and I just had to buy them.  Even better, the box of 50 was marked down to $5.  I bought two boxes.  The main purpose was for them to be used for a shower for Lindsey, but since I still have quite a few left I'm pretty sure they will surface again.  Hey, they are cute, though!  As soon as I started looking at food for the shower, I just knew I had to make pink and green cupcakes.  Even though Jason told me that I'd be the only one who would notice that they matched the invitation, it didn't matter.  I started thinking and remembered cupcakes from Shawnda's blog that seemed like they would be perfect.  Pink Lemonade & Margarita.  I really should do that baking thing more often, though, since I was a little rusty.  It just doesn't seem to come as natural as it used to!

Just a note, she's got two recipes for Margarita Cupcakes in her blog.  I went with the cupcakes from scratch, but used the icing listed in the recipe for the cupcakes adapted from a boxed mix.  Mostly because I didn't have tequila at home at the time and I didn't want to use so many egg whites.  I really liked both cupcakes, but I loved these.  The cake is very dense, but still remained moist.  The Pink Lemonade ones seemed a little dry, however almost everyone else liked them better.  Go figure.

Margarita Cupcakes from Confections of a Foodie Bride

• 3 cups flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 limes, zested and juiced
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 325 and line muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.  Whisk flour, baking powder & salt together and set aside.  In a mixer, cream butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each egg.  Beat in the lime zest and juice.  Reduce the speed on the mixer to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients and buttermilk, alternating 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/2 of the buttermilk at a time.  Mix until just incorporated.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full and bake for 25 mintues, or until the pass the toothpick test, rotate the cupcakes halfway through baking.  Allow them to cool completely before removing them from the pans. 

Lime Buttercream Frosting from Confections of a Foodie Bride

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temp
• 1/8 t salt
• 3 T lime juice
• green food coloring

In a stand mixer, combine the butter, powdered sugar, salt & lime juice and mix on low until combined.  Turn the speed to medium-high and mix until the icing is fluffy.  Stir in food coloring to get the desired green color.